Where Loyalties Lie
by Raindagger60
Summary: An adventure leads to a discovery. A discovery leads to a conflict. A conflict leads to a war. Battle lines are being drawn and Hiccup and Toothless need to chose sides. Will Hiccup choose the obvious side or maybe the one no one thought he would join? The same goes for Toothless. Will someone be able to help Hiccup make the right choice before it's too late?
1. Prologue

Prologue

This is Berk, it's twelve days north of hopeless and few degrees south of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the Meridian of Misery. The village, in a word, sturdy. It's been there for seven generations but every building is new. It has fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunset. It snows nine months of the year and hails the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The people that grow here are even more so. And this is where our story starts. Vikings used to fight and kill dragons until Stoic the Vast's son Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III learned that the dragons were just as afraid of the Vikings as they were of the dragons. He befriended Night Fury that he named Toothless. The formed a strong bond and Hiccup became the first Viking to ever train and ride a dragon. He and Toothless took on The Red Death and defeated it, ending the war with dragons and starting the era of friendship with them. Hiccup and his friends, along with their dragons, then shared in many adventures. This is the tale of one particular adventure however.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Hiccup ran through the forest, jumping over stumps and rolling under fallen trees. He could hear his pursuer. The rustle of leaves and the snapping of twigs under feet grew ever closer. He grabbed the length of rope from his shoulder and the three stones from his waist. He quickly frayed the end of the rope and set to work on unwinding it to about a fourth of the way down. He then spun the frays into three smaller rope pieces and wove the stones into the end of each rope. When finished he wrapped the single end around his right forearm and gripped the rest of the rope in his palm swinging the other end around through the air. The stones on the end of his hastily made three lashed whip added the weight he needed to swing it successfully. He ducked behind a large tree and waited for his pursuer. Movement to his left caught his eye as an axe lodged into the tree right next to his head. He rolled forward as the assailant tried to dislodge their axe. Hiccup swung the end of his whip around and lashed out. The added weight allowed the ends to wrap around the assailant's right arm and hold fast as the stones circled together. Hiccup pulled hard causing the assailant to stumble away from the tree. With their axe in the tree the assailant decided to try hand to hand. Hiccup wrapped more of the slack around his arm gaining more of an advantage. The assailant swung with their right. Hiccup ducked, opening himself up for a kick. The assailant noticed this and kicked out with their left leg. Hiccup loosed some rope and swung it around the extended leg and pulled causing the assailant to lift into the air and spin around before falling onto the hard earth. Hiccup placed his foot on the assailant's chest. "I win," he said smiling. He removed his foot and untangled the rocks from the assailant's arm before helping them up. "But it was a very good attempt Astrid."

He helped Astrid off the ground. "That's not fair Hiccup," she said lightly punching him in the arm.

"The Berserkers and the Outcasts don't play fair Astrid. You gonna tell them that after they beat you too?" Hiccup whistled and Toothless came bounding through the foliage with Stormfly, Astrid's Nadder, close behind him. "Come on Astrid," Hiccup said mounting Toothless. "Let's head back and see if the others have finished up." Astrid jumped onto Stormfly's back and they took off into the air heading for the academy. The air was cool and refreshing compared to the humidity of the forest. Hiccup smiled as he and Toothless glided through the air. They slowly descended into the former arena as the other four riders waited for them.

"Ha Astrid finally get you?" Snotlout laughed as Hiccup and Astrid dismounted their dragons.

"Not quite." Hiccup laughed causing Snotlout to laugh harder.

"Astrid, Hiccup beat you? Are you serious?" Astrid walked up to Snotlout and punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

"He'll be fine in about half an hour." Astrid said rubbing her knuckle. They all laughed as Snotlout laid facedown with his tongue out.

"So what was the point of the training supposed to be?" Tuffnut asked.

"Yeah we didn't get to blow anything up today." Ruffnut added.

Hiccup sat down on a barrel and sighed. "The point of the training was survival with limited supplies. There may be times where we don't have our dragons or supplies with us so we need to be prepared for that."

Snotlout groaned and sat up; his helmet slanted to the side. "What happened?" He asked clearly still dazed.

"Nothing." Astrid replied.

"Well that's all the training I have for today so I'm thinking we're calling it quits for now." Hiccup hopped up on Toothless' back and they took off.

Astrid watched them leave then spoke. "Hey guys, have you noticed that for the past couple of days Hiccup and Toothless haven't gone straight home? They don't even go in that general direction. They always head out towards the coast." Astrid stood with her arms crossed watching the duo fly off.

"Oh it's probably nothing Astrid." Fishlegs told her.

"Yeah," she replied, doubt clouding her thoughts. She hopped onto to Stormfly and took off after them.

"See them anywhere girl?" Astrid asked. They followed Hiccup and Toothless all the way out to an island in the middle of nowhere. The island was heavily forested and that is where they lost sight of them. "Hiccup!" Astrid shouted. "Come out already Hiccup!" A blast sounded in the distance. "Let's check it out Stormfly." She said readying her axe and shield. They made their way as quietly as possible through the foliage incase what they heard wasn't Hiccup. They followed the noise to the entrance of a dark cave. Astrid pulled up a dry shrub and held it up. "Stormfly can you light this please?" Stormfly breathed a small flame igniting the shrub in Astrid's hand. The cautiously walked into the cave, letting the flame guide their way. The cave smoothed out the further in they got. "Look Stormfly, the rest of this tunnel was made with dragon fire." Astrid examined scorch marks on the smooth stone wall. Another blast sounded through the tunnel and the walls shook slightly. "We must be getting close Stormfly." Astrid said as they went further into the tunnel; their torch dimming.

A light illuminated an opening at the end of the tunnel. Stormfly growled as they got closer. "Quiet Stormfly everything's fine." They got to the opening and looked in. A large open cavern sprawled before them. They looked around in awe at what was within. Situated all around the room were clutches of dragon eggs. Eggs of all different breeds of dragons sat within the cavern. Another blast shook the room slightly and Astrid and Stormfly searched for the source of the sound. To the far right of the cavern Hiccup and Toothless were moving rocks and breaking larger ones into smaller more manageable ones. "Hiccup, there you are!"

Hiccup and Toothless turned in surprise to see Astrid and Stormfly climbing down to meet them. "What are you two doing here?" Hiccup asked her.

"We came looking for you. What is all this?" She asked him waving her arms all around her. Stormfly went over to Toothless and started helping him break some of the rocks while Hiccup and Astrid talked.

"I found this place while charting some of the unexplored islands. It seems that the mothers abandoned the eggs that were here. I don't get how the eggs survived but I think there might be a magma pool below the cavern heating this place enough to keep the eggs alive but dormant. Toothless and I have been excavating a path to get them out of here and to Berk where it's safe." Hiccup grabbed a few rocks and tossed them aside.

"Why haven't you told anyone?" Astrid asked him.

"This is close to both Berserker and Outcast territory as well as ours. Too many people coming would draw unwanted attention and they might find this place as well." Astrid grabbed some rocks and started helping Hiccup. After a few hours they were satisfied with their work and decided to head back.

"We have to tell your father when we get back Hiccup." Astrid told him as they exited the cave.

"Yeah I know but you have to back me when I tell him we can't go after them yet." Astrid nodded in agreement as they took off.

Just off the coast of the island a ship sat anchored. The sail depicted a Skrill and three men were aboard. One watched through an eyeglass as two dragons with riders departed from the island. "Ay boys, that looks like a Night Fury and a Deadly Nadder; both with riders." One of the others grunted and the other replied to the first.

"We better tell Dagur. He'll be interested in this." The three Berserkers raised the anchor and sailed back towards their home.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Toothless rolled around in his sleep before his eyes shot open. He snapped his head over to where Hiccup lay sound asleep. He slowly crawled over to Hiccup's bed and nuzzled him lightly. Toothless, content that Hiccup was out, crept over to the opening in their room and leaped outside; landing on the grass and taking off into the forest. He slowed once he entered the forest and just roamed. He heard crashing in the tress and went to investigate. He hid behind a tree and peaked around to see a Typhoomerang. Toothless stepped out from behind the tree and announced himself. The Typhoomerang turned to look for the source of the sound. The two recognized each other. The Typhoomerang standing before Toothless was Torch the first Typhoomerang the group of young riders encountered. The two dragons exchanged growls and deep throaty noises seemingly communicating. Torch let out a low groan like sound and Toothless nodded and walked away. Toothless wandered through the forest on the path that he takes every night on his patrol. After he finished and was satisfied that nothing was going on he went back home and climbed in through the opening in his room and curled back up falling asleep.

Hiccup woke the next morning refreshed and ready to go. He convinced Astrid to wait until today before telling his dad of the dragon eggs he found. He looked over to where toothless usually slept to find it void of any dragons. "Where did that dragon get off to this time?" Hiccup groaned to himself. He grabbed some of the designs for his inventions he was working on and headed for the shop. Toothless could always find Hiccup so he wasn't too worried about Toothless freaking out when he got back to the house.

Hiccup pumped the billows a few times heating the coals. He started forming and melting down metal for some of his inventions. He took some of the metal bolts and the blade he crafted and put the finishing touches on one of his newer creations. Just like the shield that fired arrows he crafted another 'trick' shield. This one instead of firing arrows had a different purpose. The grip of the shield was the trigger, and when pulled the shield split down the middle and a sword blade popped up and the shield reconnected, the blade fitting in a small crevice Hiccup cut into both sides of the shield. Hiccup put the shield on his right arm and made sure the area was clear. He grabbed the hand grip and bent his wrist in pulling the grip towards him and activating the shield. It opened and the blade appeared as the shield reconnected all within mere seconds; the perfect balance of attack and defense. Hiccup pulled the grip again and the process repeated except the blade lowered and now it simply looked like a shield again.

"Works like a dream don' it?" Hiccup turned and smiled as Gobber entered the shop.

"Yeah it actually worked better than I had planned. I expected the blade to fly out of the holder at least but it actually worked the first time." Hiccup pulled the grip a few more times to make sure his good luck wasn't just a fluke. Each time the shield worked perfectly.

"You know Hiccup, some of these inventions of yours aren't half bad." Hiccup handed the shield to Gobber to try out. He put it on his good arm and pulled the grip causing it to produce its sword. He pulled it again and gave the shield back to Hiccup.

"Well I made them specifically to help where I lack in you know…Vikingness." Hiccup sat the shield down on the table and started cleaning up the mess he made.

He heard her voice before he saw her. "Hey Gobber, is Hiccup here?" Hiccup just finished cleaning up and hung his apron on the wall.

"Yeah he's in the back." Astrid showed up moments later.

"Hey Hiccup, I thought you had something you needed to tell your dad." Hiccup sighed and followed her out of the shop.

"Yeah, yeah I'm coming." They walked to the great hall and got there right as Stoick and Thornado landed. "Hey dad there's something I need to tell you about." Stoick dismounted Thornado as Hiccup and Astrid ran up to him.

"Aye, I'm listnin." Stoick crossed his arms and waited.

"I was out exploring some of the uncharted islands a week or so ago and Toothless and I found something. We found a nest of dragon eggs in a cavern under a mountain. They were abandoned and are just sitting there. Toothless and I have been making a tunnel to the shore line to get them out." Hiccup stopped and waited for a reaction he knew was coming.

"Thor's beard, why didn't ya tell me before?" Astrid stepped closer.

"Because if he did then you would have had half of Berk there trying to move the eggs. The island is on the border of our territory along with the Berserkers and the Outcasts. We'd draw too much attention to the island." Astrid told him.

Stoick's expression calmed. "I see, good thinking son. Don' let anyone else know about this. When you need the ships jus' let me know and I'll send 'em out to the island." Stoick opened the doors to the great hall and stepped inside and Thornado walked back to Hiccup and Stoick's house.

"You know what I was thinking that would be a great help making a tunnel?" Astrid asked as they walked to find their dragons.

"What?" And then it donned on him. "No! No, no, no, no, no!"

Astrid looked at him. "Come on there has to be one left on the island somewhere. We can train it and then it can dig the tunnel for us." Hiccup looked at her in complete shock.

"Are you crazy, it'd probably kill us before we could train it." Astrid nodded.

"Yeah but it's the best chance we have at getting them out as fast as possible. Whether you like it or not, we need a Whispering Death," she told him.

"Okay Astrid, Toothless and I will take the north and west sides of the island. You and Stormfly take the south and the east sides. If you find anything call and Toothless will hear you." Hiccup and Astrid were mounted and ready to fly. "If anyone sees you and asks you tell them anything but what you are doing." With that Hiccup and Toothless took off into the air.

"Come on bud; let's see what we can find." They slowly glided close to the ground scanning small areas of land at a time before moving on to a different area. After they finished searching the west side of the island they started flying towards the north when Toothless' ears perked. "What? Is it Astrid and Stormfly?" They turned completely around and head south. "I guess they found something." Hiccup told Toothless.

Astrid and Stormfly stood next to a large hole in the ground waiting on the other two. They heard the flap of wings and looked up to see a black dot high above them grow larger as it got closer to the ground. Hiccup and Toothless landed right next to them. "Yeah that looks like a Whispering Death tunnel all right." Hiccup said looking down into the tunnel.

"Well we better get going if we want to find and train this guy. He'll probably move to a different place after we've been in here." Astrid said. Hiccup nodded and they descended into the tunnel.

"Don't make too much noise. We need to be able to hear this thing before it gets to us." Hiccup whispered to the other three. A low growl echoed through the tunnel. "Toothless go back to the surface if I need you I'll shout for you." Toothless nodded.

"You better go to Stormfly. Don't worry, Hiccup will look after me." The two dragons silently climbed back to the surface. Hiccup and Astrid traveled further into the tunnel. Another growl echoed through the tunnel and the ground shook violently. A Whispering Death burst through the wall next to them and tunneled straight on through the opposite wall. Hiccups ears were still ringing from the combined forces of the Whispering Death and Astrid's scream. Astrid gripped Hiccup's arm and held fast until the vibrations grew weaker and eventually faded away as the Whispering Death tunneled away.

"Astrid it's gone. You can let go now." Astrid didn't speak and just shook her head, clinging to Hiccup's arm. "Fine but we're going down the way it just dug." They slowly started down that tunnel when the vibrations came back and grew stronger. The Whispering Death broke through the floor in front of them and stopped. Astrid gripped Hiccup's arm even tighter.

Hiccup slowly reached into his vest and pulled a fish out. "It's okay. We're all friends here." He tossed the fish in front of the dragon. It sniffed the air catching the scent of the fish and then devouring it. Hiccup held his hand out as the dragon cautiously approached the two. It sniffed the air and got a little closer before stopping. Hiccup grabbed another fish and threw it in front the dragon. It picked up on the scent and once again quickly devoured the fish. It approached Hiccup again as he put his hand out.

The Whispering Death slowly placed its head against Hiccup's palm. "Astrid you can open your eyes now. I think he trusts us." Astrid opened her eyes but her grip didn't loosen any. Hiccup rubbed the Whispering Death's head. It made a soft quiet purr like noise. "You know it seems a little redundant, but I'm gonna call him Whisper." Whisper repeated the sound it just made. "Okay now we need to call our dragons back." Hiccup and Astrid whistled and a few seconds later Toothless and Stormfly appeared.

Toothless growled at Whisper. "Hey bud it's okay. He's not going to attack anyone." Toothless stopped growling and looked quizzically at Whisper. "Okay now we need to get him to the village. Toothless and Stormfly, you guys need to use your wings to block the sun from Whisper's eyes so we can get him to the village." Toothless and Stormfly each extended a wing out to cover Whisper's eyes as they led him out of the tunnel and into the light.

"So what now? We wait until sunset and then lead Whisper to the island and have him help us tunnel our way to the coast?" Astrid asked.

"How should I know? This was your plan to begin with. So tell me Astrid what are we gonna do?" The five of them walked back to the village, save Whisper who didn't have legs and stayed aloft inches above the ground.

"Well then we'll lead him to the island at sunset and have him help us tunnel to the coast." Astrid decided. "Okay now we just have to figure out what to do with Whisper. We can probably set up a home for him in the hills above the village. He'd have a lot of room up there to tunnel and make a home for himself." They got to the top of a nearby hill and the village came into sight. "After we get back we'll still have a lot of time left before sunset…maybe we can do something…just the two of us." Astrid hinted.

Hiccup looked down, his cheeks slowly reddening. "Uh yeah…that'd be…nice Astrid." A gust of wind blew in immediately making the air colder. Astrid walked closer to Hiccup trying to hide from the cold. Hiccup slowly lifted his arm and wrapped it around Astrid's waist and pulled her closer. Astrid smiled and let out a small unnoticeable sigh. She wrapped her arms around Hiccup and they walked continued on their way to the village.

They reached the top of the hill above the village and Hiccup turned towards Whisper. "Okay Whisper you can make your home here in the hill. Just don't tunnel under the village and we'll be back at sunset to go on an adventure." Whisper made a grunting sound and appeared to nod then tunneled into the ground.

"Hopefully he understood what you told him." Astrid said.

"I think he understood Astrid." Hiccup replied to her. They walked down the hill and entered the village. "Well you wanted to do something Astrid?" Hiccup asked.

"Uh yeah…I did. I was thinking we could go back to your place and make some dinner. Maybe you could show me some more of your inventions and what not." Astrid blushed and looked away so as to not meet Hiccup's eyes.

"Yeah that sounds fine." Hiccup replied. "Let's go."

"Wow Hiccup, how do you come up with all of these things?" Astrid was looking through all of Hiccup's inventions and ideas he had either made or drew up and planned to make. "I mean these are amazing ideas."

Hiccup smiled. "Oh you know, I don't really have the ability that you and the others do so I come up with these to make up for that." Astrid picked up the shield he finished earlier. "Pull the grip on the shield." Hiccup told her. She did and was amazed when the sword blade raised and was set into the shield.

"This is amazing!" she exclaimed swinging it experimentally.

"Hey watch out, that is still really dangerous." Hiccup laughed.

"What you afraid I'll hurt you, you big baby?" She laughed back.

Hiccup grabbed her arm and forced her to pull the grip. "No I'm more afraid that you'll hurt yourself. Everything I made is custom fitted to work for me." Astrid took the shield off her arm and set it down.

"You need to loosen up Hiccup. And I know how to make you." Before he could do anything Astrid had Hiccup face first against the wall with his arms behind his back.

"Astrid let go of me." She laughed at him.

"How about you make me Hiccup." She whispered into his ear. Hiccup jerked his arms out trying to break Astrid's grip. "You know you can't do that with me. I'm stronger than you Hiccup." She teased him. Hiccup jerked his arms a few times to no avail.

"Yeah you're right I can't beat you in a battle of strength. But a battle of the minds is a different battle all together." Hiccup whistled and seconds later Toothless came bounding in and tackled Astrid to the ground before sitting on her.

"Ok bud, you can move now." Toothless stood up and looked over at Hiccup before walking downstairs. Hiccup sat on Astrid's legs and kept her arms pinned to the floor. "I believe I made you let go Astrid." Hiccup smiled as she pouted. He shifted back allowing her to sit up. "So am I loosened up enough for you?" He mockingly asked her.

She threw her weight forward knocking him to the ground, pinning him. "No not quite." She smiled.

"You know all I have to do is whistle and we'll be back to how it was a few seconds ago right?" Hiccup took a breath in preparation to whistle for Toothless. Astrid grabbed him and pulled him into a kiss. After a few seconds she let him go. "Still gonna whistle for back up?" Astrid asked him.

"Nah I think I'm good." He said smiling. Astrid got off of him and walked over to his bed before laying down on it. Hiccup stood up and did the same.

"It's getting late." Astrid said to break the silence.

"Yeah, it is." Hiccup agreed.

"I don't think I'm gonna go home tonight." Astrid told him.

"Then what are you gonna do?" Hiccup asked her.

"I'm gonna stay here…with you…in this bed." She told him. Hiccup remained silent.

"Okay." He finally said. He looked over towards the opening in his room. "It's close to sunset, we should get the dragons and head to the island."

Astrid looked out to see the sun crawling towards the horizon."Yeah you're right let's go."

Two ships reached shore and one man from each ship jumped onto the sand. They approached one another. "Alvin, my men told me they saw a Night Fury and a Deadly Nadder, both with riders, depart this island yesterday." Dagur faced down the leader of the Outcasts.

"Well, well, well. It looks we 'ave a little searching to do boys!" he shouted to the Outcasts on the ship.

"And us as well!" Dagur shouted to his men. The ships were left at the beach as the two groups split into search parties and spread out across the isand.


End file.
